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A mother has praised the support she received from pro-life activists outside an abortion centre, saying they gave her the “hope” she was searching for and had it not been for them her “beautiful daughter would not be here today”.

Alina Dulgheriu shared her personal experience with Holyrood’s health, social care and sport committee as it takes evidence on a bill that is aiming to create 200m buffer zones outside abortion clinics.

In recent weeks, the committee has heard from those generally in favour of the legislation.

On Tuesday, those against the bill were given an opportunity to have their say.

Ms Dulgheriu told the committee: “In 2011, I was single, abandoned, facing unemployment and terrified when I discovered I was pregnant.”

‘Pro-life vigil gave me the hope I was searching for’

Ms Dulgheriu said she booked an appointment for an abortion as she didn’t seem to have any other option as she had “little in the way of financial or emotional support”.

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She said: “I wanted to keep her, but I didn’t know how, so my hope rapidly began to fade.

“The day that I turned up to my abortion appointment, a volunteer outside the clinic gently gave me a leaflet.

“Somewhere beneath the palpable anxiety and pressure, I felt it provided me with exactly what I was longing for.

“Some would say I already [chose] abortion, but the truth is I didn’t choose it. The pro-life vigil gave me the hope I was searching for.

“Had I not received the support from volunteers, my beautiful daughter would not have been here today.”

People take part in an anti-abortion protest, organised by 40 Days For Life, on Hardgate Road, close to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow.
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An anti-abortion protest, organised by 40 Days For Life, near the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow last month. Pic: PA

Ms Dulgheriu said she weighed up the two options and “chose motherhood”.

She added: “I chose to accept help. It wasn’t easy, but with the support of the group who had given me that leaflet, I could not be [prouder] of the life my daughter and I have charted [together].”

Ms Dulgheriu said “hundreds of women” have benefited from the same kind of support.

She added: “It is worrying that we will consider denying vulnerable women access to this potentially life-changing information, especially when facing one of the most challenging decisions of their lives that could have lasting ramifications on their mental and physical health.”

‘Pro-lifers demonised’

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, co-director of March for Life UK, said she has been praying near abortion centres and speaking to women and couples for around 20 years.

She told the committee: “We know many, many women who felt empowered to make the choice they wanted to make to continue their pregnancy because of the support we offered them, which might be financial support, accommodation, childcare, friendship, baby goods, private medical care, etc.

“Essentially services not offered by the abortion providers.”

Isabel Vaughan-Spruce at Birmingham Magistrates' Court where she along with Father Sean Gough, a Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Birmingham, are accused of protesting outside an abortion clinic inside a Birmingham abortion facility censorship zone. Picture date: Thursday February 16, 2023.
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Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, co-director of March for Life UK, pictured last year. Pic: PA

Ms Vaughan-Spruce said campaign leaders would willingly work with authorities to condemn harassment.

She added: “To my experience, any women who have been anxious going for an abortion – apart from concerns about the abortion itself – were anxious about what they thought we might do because of the negative and twisted stories that are written about pro-lifers.

“What people hear or read about us is the chief cause of anxiety.”

Ms Vaughan-Spruce claimed her volunteers have been “screamed at, spat at, sworn at, even physically assaulted”.

She added: “Pro-lifers have been demonised. We’ve even had politicians calling us perverts. This has got to stop.”

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What are abortion clinic buffer zones?

Read more from Sky News:
MPs fear watering down of buffer zone rules at abortion clinics

France becomes first country in 50 years to make abortion a constitutional right

Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay is behind the Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Scotland) Bill.

Ms Mackay said the buffer zones will “stop the intimidating protests”.

File photo dated 16/06/23 of Scottish Green MSP Gillian Mackay who is hoping to pass legislation to establish buffer zones around abortion clinics has said she hopes this will be the last year women will be subjected to "intimidation and harassment" by protesters outside medical facilities. Green health spokesperson Gillian Mackay condemned such demonstrations as being "utterly shameful". Issue date: Wednesday February 14, 2024.
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Scottish Greens MSP Gillian Mackay. Pic: PA

She added: “My heart and my solidarity is with the people who are being forced to pass a gauntlet of placards and banners.

“The protesters know about the impact that they are having. They know that people feel judged, intimidated and harassed. Do they not care that they are making so many people feel this way?

“They have seen all of the same testimonies and evidence that I have. Nobody should have to go through that to access healthcare.

“I urge all of the protesters to consider their own roles and the awful impact of their words and their banners.

“They can protest outside our parliament by all means, but to knowingly target people who are often in a vulnerable place is utterly wrong, and I am determined that my bill will put a stop to it.”

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Weekend Wrap: Razzlekhan drops bars, FDIC’s Hill decries ‘Choke Point-like tactics’ and more

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Weekend Wrap: Razzlekhan drops bars, FDIC’s Hill decries ‘Choke Point-like tactics’ and more

Heather Morgan criticized the financial system in a rap video while also asking for the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, to save her.

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Rachel Reeves facing ‘pressure’, but ‘people should give her time’, says Wes Streeting

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Rachel Reeves facing 'pressure', but 'people should give her time', says Wes Streeting

The health secretary has said that the cabinet is aware of the “pressure” on Chancellor Rachel Reeves amid volatile markets and a challenging broader economic picture – but appealed for the public to “give her time”.

Wes Streeting argued that the public “underestimates” the “amount of heavy-lifting” Ms Reeves has had to do and will have to continue to do, as he declared “total confidence” in her leadership in a staunch defence of her handling of the economy.

Separately, international development minister Anneliese Dodds, who attends cabinet, told Sky News that Ms Reeves has been “very clear about the long-term plan for our country” and she herself is “confident in that long-term plan”.

The comments from the two key ministers come after the past week saw a drop in the pound and an increase in government borrowing costs, which has fuelled speculation of more spending cuts or tax rises.

Streeting has ‘total confidence in chancellor’s leadership’

Speaking at the Jewish Labour Movement’s annual conference in north London, the health secretary acknowledged the fierce competition among all government departments for any available public funding from the Treasury, and told party members that all ministers “have to make choices and trade-offs” in where funding goes.

Mr Streeting went on to say that the chancellor and her deputy, Darren Jones, have “the hardest job of all because they have to make those choices across every bit of government spending, and they have to think about what’s in the interests of our overall economy and how we get businesses growing”.

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Chancellor’s ‘pragmatic’ approach to China

He said: “I think people continue to underestimate both the amount of heavy lifting she has had to do in her first six months, and the amount of heavy lifting she will have to do in her next six months.

“And the cabinet doesn’t underestimate that – we understand the choices she has to make, the pressure she is under.”

As a result, cabinet ministers all “have a responsibility” to both “make tough choices and drive reform and value for money” within their departments, and also be “drivers of economic growth”.

“Nothing in the last six months has shaken my conviction that economic growth is the number one priority,” he said.

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Continuing his defence of the chancellor’s handling of the economy so far, Mr Streeting said she is “trying to break us out of what has been the status quo and the economic orthodoxy of more than a decade”.

“People need to give her time, and they need to not forget that, without [Sir Keir Starmer’s] leadership, certainly we wouldn’t have won the last general election.

“Without Rachel’s leadership, we wouldn’t have won the last general election either. She built Labour’s economic credibility out of the ashes they were left in after the Corbyn leadership. And she has built that trust, built up that plan, and now she’s following through.”

He declared that he has “total confidence in the leadership that Rachel’s providing, and the leadership that the cabinet is following and driving with her, because all of us have to deliver economic growth for our country”.

Minister ‘confident in chancellor’s long-term plan’

Speaking in a separate session at the conference, Ms Dodds noted “speculation” about the fiscal headroom (the amount of money the chancellor will have available to spend), but said: “We have to focus on actually the evidence.

“And when we look at the evidence, we can see that the UK government has a chancellor who is very clear about the long-term plan for our country. She’s been delivering on it.”

Read more:
Even if Siddiq resigns, the damage may already be done to Starmer
Grim economic news raises stakes for embattled chancellor

Ms Dodds, who also attends cabinet, pointed to a “new fiscal system”, the chancellor’s new Industrial Strategy Council, as well as “record levels of investment under Rachel Reeves’s leadership”.

“I think it’s really important for us to focus on those fundamentals, on what has been achieved in a very short space of time. And I’m confident in that long-term plan that Rachel has been setting out.

“And we can already see the benefit of that, frankly, in terms of the UK’s reputation when it comes to public finances, but economic management more generally. Certainly that’s what I’ve heard internationally and keep hearing just now.”

Chancellor accused of having ‘fled to China’

Chancellor Rachel Reeves with Chinese vice premier He Lifeng  in Beijing. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Chancellor Rachel Reeves with Chinese vice premier He Lifeng in Beijing. Pic: Reuters

The pair were speaking as the chancellor holds meetings in China in a bid to drum up investment for the UK economy, having ignored calls to cancel the long-planned trip because of economic turmoil at home.

Opposition parties have accused the chancellor of having “fled to China” rather than explain how she will fix the UK’s flatlining economy, and former prime minister Boris Johnson said Ms Reeves had “been rumbled” and said she should “make her way to HR and collect her P45 – or stay in China”.

Speaking during her trip, Ms Reeves said she would not alter her economic plans, with the October budget designed to return the UK to economic stability, and reiterated that “growth is the number one mission of this government”.

She said that “action” will be taken to meet the fiscal rules. That action is reported to include deeper spending cuts than the 5% efficiency savings already expected to be announced later this year, while cuts to the welfare bill are also said to be under consideration.

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Tulip Siddiq could lose job if found she broke rules amid housing allegations, cabinet member suggests

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Tulip Siddiq could lose job if found she broke rules amid housing allegations, cabinet member suggests

Anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq could lose her job if the investigation into her properties finds she broke government rules, a cabinet member has suggested.

Science Secretary Peter Kyle was asked about Ms Siddiq on Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.

She has referred herself to the prime minister’s independent adviser on ministers’ interests, Sir Laurie Magnus, following reports she lived in properties in London linked to allies of her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, the deposed prime minister of Bangladesh.

There have also been questions about trips she took to Russia alongside her aunt.

Ms Siddiq insists she has “done nothing wrong”.

As economic secretary to the Treasury, Ms Siddiq oversees anti-corruption efforts in the financial sector as part of her brief.

Mr Kyle told Sky News: “With Tulip, she’s referred herself straight away to this.

“There is a process under way and we know full well it will be a functional process, and the outcomes of it will be stuck to by the prime minister and this government, a complete contrast to what we’ve had in the past.”

He gave this answer after Trevor pointed out Labour would have been calling for a sacking if the roles were reversed and the Tories were in power.

Read more:
Siddiq refers herself to ethics watchdog
Minister caught up in anti-corruption probe

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‘Tulip Siddiq will lose job if she broke rules’

Mr Kyle contrasted his party’s stance with the Conservative one – saying he called for an investigation into allegations of bullying from Priti Patel, and she “had to be dragged to that inquiry”.

He added that he let the inquiry pan out.

“The results came out, she was found guilty, and no action happened,” Mr Kyle said.

His response came after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch called for Ms Siddiq to be sacked yesterday.

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride repeated the calls today to Sky News.

He said: “What is not right is that the prime minister is not moving her out of that position and getting her to step down

“Because she is the anti-corruption minister, she has serious charges laid against her now, or serious accusations around corruption, and it’s going to be really impossible for her to do that job under current circumstances.

“So she should step down, and the prime minister needs to get a grip of that.”

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The Sunday Times this week interviewed the current leader of Bangladesh, Muhammad Yunus, who called for Ms Siddiq to be investigated.

He said the properties should be handed back to his government if they were acquired through “plain robbery”.

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